Anthrax bassist Frank Bello opened up about one of the darkest chapters of his life — the murder of his brother Anthony and the two weeks of obsessive grief that followed — in a candid conversation on Beardo and Weirdo.
Bello recounted in vivid detail the night he learned of his brother’s death on March 25, 1996. The harrowing emotional spiral that followed led him to arm himself and stake out the killer’s location night after night — something he has since documented in his book.
“I’ll give you the full story here. In March 25th, 1996, I was in my condo in New York, and Charlie, my drummer, he’s my uncle. We’re related. I think it was 9:30, 10 o’clock at night, somebody running up my stairs. All of a sudden, I get banging on my door. I’m on my couch watching TV. I said, ‘What the f*ck?’ I go to my door. I opened the door, it’s Charlie. He goes, ‘You got to come. Anthony’s been shot. He’s dead.’ I fall to the floor. And this is all true story,” Bello said.
He went on to describe the painful ordeal of the criminal trial in the Bronx, where he came face to face with his brother’s killer in court.
“We went through the trial and it was just like a bad. It was like a Scorsese movie where these guys were tough guys that wanted to be, you know, made all that nonsense, right? And these were tough and it was a big story. It was a big deal. My brother happened to be a pretty good knockout guy and he had a fight with a couple of guys, one guy specifically the year before and he knocked him out. This guy wanted the revenge and this guy knew some people blah blah blah,” he continued. “And it got ugly and they dragged us through the criminal court system of New York City, the Bronx. And I would never wish that on my worst enemy. So we go in court, you see this prick that did it, right? No names here. The prick that did it and his friends and family and then you have my family and the prick that did it comes out in cuffs and he’s trying to eye my family down. Me and my brother just about, my other surviving brother, we’re gonna go for it, you know, and we couldn’t because that would be bad for my mom.”
Bello then described the two weeks of complete darkness that followed. He secretly obtained a gun and waited outside for the killer — a period he says nearly consumed him entirely.
“And look I’m no tough guy but there is a level of, you know, of shit you can’t tolerate. It was pretty bad. Long story short, but it was ugly. And the thing you were talking about — after it happened, right after it happened, there were two weeks of darkness where I didn’t give a f*ck if I was in Anthrax, if I was, you know, a guy was going to get married to my wife, it didn’t matter,” he said. “All I knew is this guy took down my brother. And so I waited outside. That’s the truth. It’s in my book. You can read all this stuff. I zoned around. I had my car. I waited all night from 9:00 to 4 in the morning. That’s just the story. I never had a gun in my life until then. But I got a gun. My family didn’t know. Nobody knew anything what I was doing. Nobody knew anything. It was just me and a complete darkness.”
What ultimately pulled him back, Bello explained, was the realization that acting on his rage would only bring more devastation to his family.
“I didn’t even know who I was because all I know — and again, not a tough guy here — but it was another level that I didn’t know. I don’t want to even visit that guy anymore because I’m just glad it worked out the way it did. And then two weeks later, I just started thinking, all right, if this happens, you’re going to be — if I do this, you know, I didn’t give a f*ck about my career or anything like that. It’s my family I really cared about. If I do this, then it’s going to be retribution. Then they’re going to take me out and then my mother loses another kid. And who wants that?” he said. “You start thinking this stuff and then you start to clear — it starts to clear up and you have clarity and you just hope and pray that there’s some kind of karma in the world. And sometimes there is and from what I know there hasn’t been karma yet. I don’t know. I believe the karma is that you were able to fight off those urges and you’re out there still doing your thing, living your best life, available there for your wife, for your mom, for your other surviving brother.”
The interview revisits a tragedy that Bello has carried for three decades. It is one that ultimately shaped not only his personal life but also his decision to put his story on record for others who may find themselves consumed by grief and the impulse for revenge.
Anthony Bello was 23 years old when he was shot three times outside a coffee shop in the Bronx on March 25, 1996. The case was never solved. A witness appeared for the pre-trial hearing but could not be located afterward, effectively closing the case and leaving it a cold case to this day. Frank confirmed his brother’s identity at the scene in a moment of devastating clarity — he recognized Anthony not by his face, but by his shoes, which were visible beneath the sheet covering the body.
Bello detailed the full arc of his breakdown and recovery in his autobiography, Fathers, Brothers, and Sons: Surviving Anguish, Abandonment, and Anthrax, released on November 2, 2021. The book was co-written with British author Joel McIver and features a foreword by KISS bassist Gene Simmons. It covers not only Anthony’s murder but also Bello’s father’s abandonment, his relationship with Anthrax, and the passing of Metallica’s Cliff Burton, among other defining moments in his life.
“I lost it. Two weeks after my brother’s murder, I snapped to the point of becoming the hunter. I kind of lost track of who I was, I saw everything in black. I didn’t care about Anthrax or my family, I only had one goal and that was revenge,” Bello said. “Thank goodness I thought about my mother. ‘What am I doing here? Why am I holding a gun?’ I was thinking about my mother and wondering what would happen if I did that. She would lose two sons. Then I thought about my brother who died and that kind of snapped me out of that trance. I went home and threw myself into therapy.”
Bello has spoken openly about sharing the story in his book so that others would not find themselves in the same position. The experience pushed him into therapy, which he credits with helping him reclaim his identity and return to his life, his marriage, and his music. He carries a tattoo on his right upper arm bearing Anthony’s face, with the words “In Memory of Anthony” beneath it — a permanent reminder of the brother he lost and the darkness he chose to walk away from.
Source: Beardo and Weirdo
